When yours truly was a kid, eating at the State Fair meant grabbing some fried cheese curds, a funnel cake, and resigning oneself to a coating of that unique combination of powdered sugar and sweat. Things are not so simple in the new millennium, however. [More]

If you thought the world couldn’t possibly cough up yet another deep-fried food oddity, you were wrong and you’ll probably be wrong again if you think people will ever stop chucking things into hot oil. The deep-fried trend is especially prevalent at fairs and festivals, with this year’s nominee for freakish fare showing up at the San Diego County Fair to much ado: Deep-fried Starbucks coffee.

Take a look at that fried chicken sandwich/French fry/potato chip you’re about to eat. It could soon cost you more money to reach deep-fried satisfaction, as the crops necessary to make the vegetable oil used by many companies to fry your favorite foods to a golden crisp are struggling in Canada.

Peanuts and Cracker Jack? Please, that is so 20th century. The new cool thing to do at baseball stadiums is apparently to concoct menu items so calorie-laden that people can’t help but notice them, if not eat them: The Texas Rangers are joining the artery-clogging pool with new creations like bacon-flavored cotton candy and chicken-fried corn on the cob.

Well, it’s state and county fair season, which can only mean one thing. This is America, darn it, and there is nothing in this great nation that we aren’t able to fry. This summer, word out of Texas is that deep-fried Nutella is the new hotness. Nutella? [More]

With our fingers on the feeble pulse of the latest news in junk food, we at Consumerist headquarters wait anxiously every year to hear what they’re frying at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar, California. Later fairs nationwide are sure to follow suit. New this year: deep-fried Girl Scout cookies and deep-fried Kool-Aid. Don’t worry, you can still get the boring old classics like fried Krispy Kreme chicken sandwiches and fried Klondike bars.

As we’ve already seen with this summer’s Meat Man Parfait, state fairs are a hotbed of culinary experimentation. The latest headline maker comes from the Texas State Fair, where one man plans to unleash the craziness that is Fried Beer upon the world.